Xp As Story

ExtremeProgramming is known for its emphasis on stories, but the one told here is of a different kind.

I was considering the arguments given on WhatIsExtremeProgramming and ExtremeProgrammingIsTheExtremeValues, the notion that it's "not XP" unless you're doing all of the practices and nothing but, and its paradoxical companion that an XP project will always be doing something slightly different from "pure" XP.

It struck me that XP shares these traits with, say, a novel. We recognize that the same broad themes run through Homer's Iliad and Odyssey; in both stories, these themes are artfully weaved into a powerful and moving whole. The stories have common characters, some structurally similar subplots can be found in both.

Nevertheless, nobody seems to be claiming that the Iliad is in fact the same story as the Odyssey.

Like Homer's great tales - which were actually oral traditions, not primarily written works - XP is more like a campfire story than it is like a novel. A good storyteller will tailor the tale to the audience, and no two tellings are ever the same, and no one can ever deliver "the official version". For all that, a campfire story has its own definite identity. It can be altered or embroidered, it can have bits spliced in or hacked out, and you can still recognize it as a low-fidelity version of the "real" story.

The ExtremeProgramming practices are the elements of the story; the way they interact and reinforce each other are the narrative structure. The main themes of the story are the ExtremeValues, and they organize that structure.

Like a campfire story, it gets polished and refined and improved in being told and retold, and transmitted as a living tradition. Like a campfire story, the way it is told matters; a story is most effective when delivered convincingly.

Very interesting, indeed